Supreme Court directs Unitech to refund home buyers of Noida project, housing firm expresses inability

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed housing major Unitech to refund home buyers money over delay in housing projects in Noida and Gurgaon.

However, Unitech Ltd expressed its inability before the Supreme Court to refund money to the home buyers over its two delayed housing projects in Noida and Gurgaon.

"We don't have money. If we had money, we would have constructed the flats and buildings and given to them," senior advocated A M Singhvi, the counsel for Unitech Ltd, told a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and U U Lalit said.

The apex court has sought a list of buyers who want refund, during next hearing scheduled on August 17.

The counsel for some flat buyers of Unitech's Burgundy project in Noida and Vistas in Gurgaon told the bench that they don't want their money back but they want their house.

More than two dozen home buyers of Unitech's housing projects in Noida and Gurgaon have approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) after the builder failed to give them possession of the flats as per the scheduled.

The consumer forum has asked the real estate firm to refund the money to home buyers with interest.

The apex court had last month asked the company to deposit an interim penalty of Rs 5 crore with the court registry after the firm challenged an order of the consumer forum which had asked the developer to pay Rs 5 crore penalty to three buyers of its Burgundy project.

The court had said that the penalty deposited with the court will be awarded to the buyers or returned to Unitech, depending on the outcome of the case.

A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and C Nagappan also warned the developer to deposit the amount by August 12, failing which its directors may be sent to judicial custody.

The order came during the hearing of a plea filed by Unitech against National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission’s (NCDRC) October 12, 2015 order which directed the firm to pay compensation and litigation costs for delay in handing over three flats in project Burgandy in Sector 96 of Noida in Uttar Pradesh.

The apex consumer commission had also directed Unitech to hand over possession of the flats booked by Diwakar Mishra and others on or before October 31, 2017.

The complainants had moved the commission alleging that despite having paid more than 95 per cent of the agreed sale consideration to the real-estate major, the possession of the flats have not been offered to them and the construction was “still far from complete”.

With Agency Inputs